30 December 2010

All day we've regailed Amelia with stories about our "temple day," looked at photos from the day, and enjoyed hunkering down while a blizzard rages outside. Justin anticipated the blizzard so we took a couple hours off yesterday to drive to Cheyenne for sushi and pleasure shopping. Alison watched the kiddos for us. Justin let me browse Hobby Lobby for an hour, *smile*. Oh man, sushi was heavenly. I even enjoyed my favorite seaweed salad. I am craving hot and spicy foods during this pregnancy, the sushi was not so spicy. We hit TJ Maxx, Ross, and Walmart just for fun. We finally scored a nice wok from TJ Maxx. By 8:10 we were back in Sidney. Alison put the kids to bed and fell asleep on our couch while we caught a late movie. Earlier in the week I thought this was our 5th wedding anniversary, guess time flies when you are having fun.

Tuesday Ella and Brayden spent the day with us while Alison and Matt attended a wedding in Denver. The weather seemed relatively temperate until the blasted wind kicked up. Still we braved the wind and played at the park for 45 minutes. Phillip was so excited. He chattered away like a squirrel talking about the park. I could hardly keep up with him! Brayden amused himself throwing rocks at the frozen fish and numerous geese. We all met Justin at McDonald's for lunch. I miss being outside. After noon I let the kids play with Amelia's Moon Dough Santa brought her. Santa thought maybe Moon Dough would be superior to play dough. Oh My Goodness. It was worse. The Moon Dough claims to never dry out, that claim is true. It crumbles horribly and makes a fantastic mess. Course, the kids had a blast on my studio floor. I think a quarter of the dough ended up inside the vacuum.

All week my Uncle Scott and I enjoyed emailing about photography. I finally put my pride aside and asked for help. Scott gave me some amazing advice and information. I put one major piece of advice to work on Wednesday for a photo shoot planned several months ago. He suggested I use an 18% gray card to calibrate my camera for both exposure AND white balance. The gray card worked like a charm. My poor gray card sat in my photography supplies for 3 years not knowing how to use it. The card warmed up my subjects perfectly even though the day was gray and gloomy. Thanks so much Uncle Scott.

Today Amelia helped me hang some decorations for the inside of her playhouse. I fleshed out her rose boxes with the same roses found at Walmart (phew, that was almost an emergency). I also used my cousin Jessica's tutorial to make a new cover for my ironing board with fabric from Hobby Lobby.